Rodington Ramble

This series was published last week while I was away down Hastings with Kate & Ben, so as soon as I was back home and with proper internet connection I put a post on Facebook West Mids Geocaching group to see who fancied  this ramble.
Not surprising but thankfully it drummed up a bit of interest, so today I met up with the 2 Daves (BaggieDave & The Strangler), Bob (B.B.B. formerly G6LPB) & Lou (TheHorde) and at 7.45am the ramble commenced.

Rodington Ramble by nozi parkerz

http://coord.info/GC384CP

This is a trail of 58 caches, around Rodington and Isombridge The route is about a 10/11 mile walk but can be done in sections with some walking and some drive bys, there is a number of suitable parking areas. The terrain is mainly flat walking along country roads and public footpaths. There is a variety of cache sizes and hides some easy and  some not so easy.

We chose to park on a car park by cache number 19 and then do the whole lot as a walk. It started of with a bit of drizzle and then shortly after the rain got a bit heavier forcing us all to put our coats on.

An old boot!

The walk started off nicely and we came across many neatly crafted caches, there as obviously been a great deal of time and effort gone into making them.

A pic of the stream by Lou!

Today was a good day for geochat and of course the banter. We all at different stages went a while without finding one but then made up for it at another point.
During most of the walk we hardly went past any houses and it was very quiet and peaceful. The footpaths were mostly marked ok with a few stiles here and there.

The Pied Piper of Rodington.

After a while we were able to take coats off as it had stopped raining and even the sun made an appearance at one point. We did go through a pretty noisy area too but that was where there were lots of hounds as well as kennels and a travellers farm....but the quietness soon returned just as we bumped into other cachers who were out on the trail today.

Part of the team with The West Viewers & lostnwet

We had a chat with lostnwet & The West Viewers and both moved on briefly before bumping into them both again with c/o nozi parkerz, Wild Goosey & BFG.
A great part of geocaching is definately bumping into friends and meeting new ones, we all chatted for a good 10 minutes before moving on.

A brief chat with c/o....pic courtesy of The Strangler

A shot by cache #1....pic courtesy of The Strangler

That was it for bumping into anyone else today but there were plenty more great caches left to do, one of them involved us losing the path and crossing a brook with mud and shallow water to get over, it was a little tricky so as I was over safely first I offered to grab Lou as it was a bit slippy....Unfortunately I slipped and Lou's feet went straight in for a dip oops hehe.

Well I think that is pretty much it for this great series today!
We found all the caches and can highly recommend this to everyone who enjoys a longish walk.

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Total caches bagged today = 58

Scooby Doo.....where are you?

To start the day off I had just enough time for a drive by Studio 16 - Aural Sculpture (by The Strangler) which I had DNF'ed before, today I found it straight away..... and then to get dropped off at one point, walk a mile and be picked up at another.

I managed to get:

• Weatheroak Wander: Gate
• The Lazy Cacher's Guide to Northfield Street Names
• B.M.Ex

All 3 caches were enjoyable but found quickly, the Lazy Cacher's guide being a mystery cache I had solved ages ago....Nice to have them all in the bag.

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Whilst attending the Brummie Meet last week these few caches had been published and there had been lots of talk about them since. The talk was very positive although Geohatter (the reviewer) did disable them at one point due to a complaint from a cacher that the caches didn't have log books in. The truth is that they did but they weren't inside each individual cache.
The cacher who complained to the reviewer was probably chasing the FTFs and realised that they had to find them all first, I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil the theme of it as I enjoy everything Brett the c/o does.

The Scooby Doo Mysteries by mwahppets

http://coord.info/GC3FCYV

This is a set of 5 mystery, premium only caches, they are great family fun or done in a group like we did. You can walk 4 of them in under 2 miles and then reposition car for the last one.

All of BCC was out today to cache with other caching teams. We parked in the middle of Dickens Heath on a carpark behind Main Street (Approx coords N52 23.147 W1 50.175 from Memory Map) to meet up with The Strangler, Fantastic Finders!, matlou98, Family B, Dibboid & Mrs Dibboid.

As talking about these will definately spoil future fun I have decided to just add a few pics of the fun we had.

The caches:

• Scooby Doo                            http://coord.info/GC3FCYV
• Shaggy                                    http://coord.info/GC3FCZD
• Mummys the word                  http://coord.info/GC3FD23
• Soggy Bog Scooby                  http://coord.info/GC3FD2Z
• The Phantom Racer                 http://coord.info/GC3FD3Z 

The Mystery team on their way....pic by The Strangler

Playtime with Scooby

It was sooo scary!.....pic by The Strangler

Where's mummy?.....there they are!!

I didn't wobble much!

Yikes! What was that noise?

An absolutely fantastic time was had by all....and not just the kids..... and 1 other cache was bagged on route. Max's Spooky Pipes (nee Stye) by The Cuthies & Max

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Early evening a few caches were published not to far away so I thought as I hadn't had a drink I may as well pop out and take a look at them. I had a bit of a disaster downloading GPX file to Oregon as my pc crashed delaying me by around 10 mins......amazingly I still managed 1 FTF up against team maxtrev and AdamandBeckyChater.
There were 5 released and they were all drive by's... Pedmore Cache and Dash by Caspian317
All the caches were relatively easy but some thought went into 2 of them and they were slightly harder to find due to busy road.
I bumped into Clan Bryant at one of the caches and then saw them again at 2 others, it was fantastic to meet you both

I also ended the day making a bit of a muppet of myself.....Clan Bryant had just found a cache we were looking for and I said that I was just going to say hi to Mrs. maxtrev who was sat in the layby in her car.....well! I knocked on window and she pulled window down, it then took me a full 5 seconds to realise that this was NOT Mrs. maxtrev or even a cacher DOH!!!   I was so embarrassed, all she had done was pull in to make a phone call.....

A funny end to a fab day all round....

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Total smilies bagged today = 15

Onion Barge-e

A few of us arranged last night via the West Mids Geocaching group on Facebook to meet up to do a brand new & first series by caching partner Jules from the Bedfords. So today Mr, Mrs and Ben BCC were all out caching with Tony (All-Weather-Cacher), Dave (The Strangler), Lee (rowley104) and Neil (thornicus).
We met at 9.30am on the Crown pub carpark and after saying hi to all and getting booted up, we were on our way.

A2BG by thebedfords

http://coord.info/GC3C639

A series of 9 caches along the Worcester - Birmingham Canal, between Alvechurch and Barnt Green. Most of the caches are nice, straightforward hides and good for all cachers including geo-kids, there are also a few that require a bit more effort.




An old bridge.


The weather was a bit nippy at first but it soon turned out to be yet another beautiful morning. Infact perfect caching weather (just like any other weather).
I was quite happy to find the first cache of the day as it was obviously the first cache under my belt hidden by my caching partner Jules....it was a great cache too.
We carried on to another fab one which I am sure will get many favourite points, you will know where its going to be but will still have to find it.

The next one is one of my regular exploits.....climbing a tree....NOT!
Well before I could do anything Tony was up the tree so I had got away with it  so I opted to retrieve the mouse part of the cache which is the one to tell you to  climb higher, I did redeem myself however by climbing up the tree to put the actual cache back because I am not a wuss!!!!
Another fab cache.

Don't look down Ian!

The next cache was a nicely camo'ed one that is a little different and we were all delighted that Neil found this one as he feels that he is not a very good cacher, he proved himself wrong here. Onto the last one up the North part of the canal and a nice sized one for the kids. We have only done 5/9 caches so far and they already have something for everyone.



We bump into more Caching addicts - The Cuthies!


So we walk back the way we have came to do the southern section and find another nice sized container which will keep the kids happy and on the way to the next one we spot some caching buddies The Cuthies but without their dog Max, we had a few minutes chat in the sunshine while this well hidden cache was found.

So just 2 caches left with great company, I/We are very lucky to have so many caching friends.
My little man Ben found the next one which was another sneaky hide and then we made way to the last one.
On arrived at almost GZ I recognised where I was, I had found a cache of Butttercups only a few months back not far from this one, but we did have a quick check for that but it must be archived.
The fab hint gave Tony a quick find.

We then took a few group shots before Lee left us and we did another cache that myself and Dave had already got before.

The traditional leaning group shot.

Right it was time to head back, Kate fancied a beer at the pub and Dave had to get home..... so Neil, Tony and myself popped off to bag a nearby multi and then joined Kate and Ben in the pub.

A fantastic first series by Jules and family and well recommended from us.

We bagged 9 out of 9 for the series

A2BG +others Workout

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After having a quick snack and a pint it was time to head off home, where we bagged one more on the way back.

Total smilies for day = 11

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